Bleed means that the image extends on all four sides of the pages. The purpose is to ensure that after a page has been printed and trimmed, the image will still continue to the edge A full bleed requires use of a larger sheet of paper. For instance, an 11" x 17" full bleed page would actually be printed at 12" x 18" (or larger) before it is trimmed. Office laser and inkjet printers can't print a bleed. .

Calibration means to fix or correct the graduations of colour for colour input or output devices (scanner, monitor, printer). Ideally, a scanner's software is re-calibrated according to the press needs of the particular document for which it is scanning images. The intended result is that what we see on screen, is the same as what we get off the press.

CMYK Printers use CMYK - representing the colours cyan (a light blue), magenta (a pinkish purple), yellow, and black inks - when printing 4-colour process work. These are called subtractive colours, as combining them all gives the colour black. Subtracting one or more of these colours will yield any other colour. When combined in various percentages, these four inks will create an entire spectrum of colours, including those used in colour photographs.

Coated Paper Paper with a layer of coating applied to one (C1S) or both (C2S) sides, such as gloss, dull and matte finish. Due to decreased dot gain, coated papers provide sharper images and are used frequently in 4 colour process work as well as in black and white halftones.

Colour Separations are the stage prior to film production when each colour overlay is a translation to and separation of the respective colours - RGB to CMYK. When colour separations are combined, they make a full colour image. This is used as a proof or final piece.

Contrast is the tonal gradation between the highlights, middle tones and shadows in an image.

Copywriter Someone who writes copy for advertisements or other promotional material.

Creative Design Services
refers to the part of graphic design which requires skilled, original, creative input, in contrast to production work.

Cropping To reduce in size; to remove unwanted elements.

Colour Matching A colour sample book is used to match colours with standard inks used by most printers. The printer will then prepare separate printing plates for each colour. The colours are chosen from those provided by a colour matching system, such as Pantone. Use of a colour matching system permits consistency of the colour over time and among different jobs.

Composite Image A photograph or other image that is created by a combination of multiple images on a single sheet.

Copy The words (text) that are used in printed material.
Copyright An exclusive right that has been granted by law to a particular creative product

Crash Printing LeDensity is the degree of darkness of a photographic image (its light absorption or opacity). For instance, a true black would be 100% density...important to the production artist and pressman when used as a guide to determine an accurate colour value or range of halftone from 10% to 100%.

Die-Cutting is the process of cutting special shapes from paper stock.
Printers maintain some standard dies for frequently used shapes, such as a standard 9" x 12" pocket folder with business card slits. A custom die, such as for a uniquely shaped pocket or cutout, is a special feature which, of course, comes with a special customized price.

DPI – Dots Per Inch
is a measurement of the resolution of an output device – a printer, whether of film or paper. For instance, a standard office laser printer would print at 600 DPI. A film image setter would print at 2500 DPI or higher.

Dot Gain The spread of ink on paper, causing the dots which make up the image to print larger than they were on the film or plate. The images may become distorted, appearing darker with less clarity.

Dreamweaver is Web page composition software that produces HTML documents.

Duotone is a two-colour halftone reproduction of a one-colour photograph. A photo, which is continuous toned, is converted by a screen into dots of various sizes and equal spacing between their centres, and reproduced in two colours.
We use duotones extensively in two colour documents. They can add elegance to a document which is printed on a restricted budget. They also can mask poor photography. We may vary the percentage of colour in several duotones on a page to add interest.

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) can be either bitmap or vector images, depending on which program created the file. It is the preferred format for storing and exchanging vector graphics from a drawing program. depending on in which program the file is created.

Flash is a software application producing a variety of multimedia including sound, animations and interactive Web pages. Flash has the advantage of producing small files that are accessible by nearly any user

Font refers to a complete set of letters, numbers, punctuation marks etc. of a particular size and design, also referred to as type or text.

Four colour Process A method of printing that uses dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black to recreate the continuous tones and variety of colours in a colour image.

Foil is also known as gold foil, whether the colour is gold, silver, or any coloured metallic. A small amount of foil is pressed onto a printed document in a special process. Foil creates a special effect, which could be elegant, splashy, or anything in between, depending on how it is designed.

Format is the size, style, type, page, margins, printing requirements etc. of a printed piece. When we ask a client to supply text without formatting, we are asking to have all tabs, borders, headers, footers, bold, italic, etc. removed.

Halftone is a photo where continuous tone is converted by a screen into dots of various sizes and equal spacing between their centres.
Note from The Art of Desktop Publishing: "Camera ready" photographs are ones that are already converted to the patterns of tiny dots needed for printing (halftones) instead of containing grays or intermediate tones."

HTML stands for hyper text markup language. It is a scripting language used by programmers to compose Web sites.

Hard Copy is printed output of a computer on paper or on disk. When we ask for hard copy as well as on disk, we want to be able to compare the two to ensure that we received everything in good order.

Image may refer to a photo but could also refer to a piece of line art.
Image File Conversion
is a process that converts image files to different formats. (I.e., JPEG to GIF; TIF to JPEG; etc.

JPEG or Joint Photographic Experts Group is a file format utilizing compression techniques that were developed to reduce file sizes of images. One of the two major image file formats utilized on the Web.

Laminate When we use the term, it's usually in reference to Fuji laminates, for which the layers of colour separations are bonded. The colour reproduction is truer than with colour separations because no air or matter is trapped between the layers.

Line Art is any drawing which is entirely in one colour, commonly black. It's not necessarily made of lines. For instance, a solid square would be line art. Or a stick figure would be.

LPI From Hemlock's Digital Mechanical Preparation:
"Lines per inch. An electronic prepress term used to refer to the halftone screen frequency, which is measured in lines of halftone dots per inch."

Leading The space between lines of type, measured from the baseline of one line to the baseline of the next. The quantity is measured in points, such as 6 point type, 8 point, etc. Each point equals approximately 1/72th of an inch.

Logo is a symbol or image which conveys the identity of a company or product.

Lupe A magnifying lens used by printers to examine the details of printed materials. Use of a lupe permits an individual to see the individual colour halftone dots used in process colour printing.

Matte Finish coated paper finish without gloss or lustre.

Metallic Inks are used to provide a special effect. Metallic inks are more costly and need to be handled with special care by the printer. There are times, however, when it is best not to use them at all. If material is to be photocopied, avoid metallic inks as they don't reflect light in the same way regular inks do; consequently, your copies will reproduce unevenly.

Offset Printing An indirect printing process whereby ink is transferred to the paper by a blanket that carries an impression from the printing plate, rather than directly from the plate itself. This is the most common method of commercial printing at this time.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Software that translates images of letters entered into the computer with a scanner into characters that can be manipulated as text but not as images.Overrun
is a printing term referred to the number printed in excess of the required number.

PMS or Pantone Management (colour) System are specially mixed solid inks which are the industry standard for referring to colour in printing and design. They are different from the four colour process colours of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
A two colour job will often be printed in black and a Pantone colour, or two Pantone colours. Pantone colours may be used on a four or six colour press to augment other colours. (For instance, a corporate colour might be printed in the corporate PMS colour on a full colour job otherwise printed in four colour process.) When we design a logo, we establish and provide the numbers of the Pantone colours involved.
A special note – the same colour will not reproduce faithfully on different kinds of paper, such as coated and uncoated, so we make allowances by taking the paper's characteristics into account and selecting a slightly different Pantone colour according to the purpose.

PDF or Portable Document Format is as the name suggests. It is a format which can be used across different platforms. It is commonly used on the Web. We can e-mail PDF files to show our clients full colour versions of their work at the proof or final stage. All elements are fixed in a PDF file – they can't be adjusted in any way in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is the software used to read portable document format (PDF) files. Material is created, compiled and converted into PDF format in Adobe Acrobat Distiller and Adobe Acrobat Exchange.

Plates are part of the printing process. "Burning a plate" is an expression used by printers to refer to transferring material from film to a special metal, plastic or paper plate which is then attached to the printing press. This is from The Art of Desktop Publishing:
"The metal, paper or plastic sheet containing the image to be placed on the printing press. At this point, most methods of electronic composition and layout still produce a final paper "mechanical" or film negative, which is made into the plate by a photographic process."

Preparation : "...refers to a professional organization that operates high resolution scanning equipment, edits client provided digital mechanicals, merges the scans with the files, applies trapping and imposition and outputs plate ready film.

Process colour One of the four colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) that is used in producing full-colour images, such as colour photographs.

Proof A method of checking for errors prior to printing an order. Normally the last prepress operation. A press proof is used by the printing press operator to ensure the correctness of the finished product during the production of the order.

Papers: Coated and Uncoated Coated papers have a high proportion of clay instead of wood fibre. Clay is less expensive and can be polished ("calendered") to provide a smooth finish. This has led to the mistaken impression that coated papers are expensive.
Uncoated papers have a higher wood fibre content than coated papers, and so generally are more expensive. They are often used for letterhead and for many (but not all) annual report inside pages.

Perfect Binding A binding process whereby single sheets are stacked together, the binding edge is ground to create a rough surface, and adhesive is applied. A cover is then wrapped around the pages.

Photocopy A reproduction process that uses a light sensitive printing element, toner, and heat to fuse the toner to the paper to produce the copy.

Photoshop is a pixel or raster software program used for photo editing.

Pica A unit of measure equal to 12 points or one sixth of an inch.

Pixel Short for picture element. These are the dots that form the picture on a monitor. The smaller the pixel, the more detailed the picture.

Point Equivalent to 1/72th of an inch, points are the units of measurement of type, such as 6 point, 10 point, etc.

Pre-Press refers to the services which are required between design and printing in development of printed materials. They may be provided by a pre-press house or by a printer. They include scanning and film production.
From Hemlock's Digital Mechanical

Press Proofs are made on a printing press in advance of the production run.

Printing The process of applying ink to paper or other object in order to reproduce words or images.

Printing Plate A thin object (plate) made of either metal or paper which is light sensitive and causes an image to be transferred to paper while on a printing press. The image is burned onto the plate by the use of high intensity light. The surface of the plate is treated or configured so that only the printing image is receptive to the ink which transfers to the printed object.

Production Work is in contrast to design work, refers to scanning, to the placement of images according to a stylesheet; in other words, to the more repetitive and less creative aspects of a job. A magazine or newsletter would contain a much higher proportion of production work than a corporate brochure. Compare with Creative Design Services.

Raster Image Processor (RIP) In computer imaging, the computerized process that results in an electronic bit map which indicates every spot position on a page in preparation for an actual printout.

Resolution in electronic imaging, the number of spots per inch, which corresponds to printout quality From Hemlock's Digital Mechanical Preparation:
"An expression used in scanning to refer to the number of pixels per linear inch (see PPI). The term is also used to refer to laser printers and imagesetters to express the number of laser spots per inch." (see DPI).

Registration refers to the exact lining up of two or more printing images. Printers use register marks, small crosses or target at the edge of material, to align images exactly.

RGB (red, green, and blue) are called additive colours because added together they may create all colours. Typically, RGB is used for slide presentations, computer software and games, and anything that is viewed on a video monitor.

Run refers to the quantity printed, i.e. a run of 2,000

Saddle Stitch The binding of sheets of paper to form a book by use of staples or stitching through the spine.

Scanning A scanner digitizes visual information. It electronically separates images into their constituent colours (CMYK) for printing or electronic reproduction RGB (if colour is involved). In the process, colour and tone correction can be carried out.

Score To mechanically crease or press a channel into paper along a line so it will fold more easily.

Serif Font is a font with short finishing strokes projecting from the ends of its characters. Newspapers and books for instance, are always set in serif fonts because the short cross-lines lead the eye from one letter to another, and increase reading speed significantly.
From The Art of Desktop Publishing:
"...a small cross-stroke or ornament at the end of the main strokes making up a character. Most older types have serifs, and many people find typefaces with serifs easier to read. However, sans serif (without serif) types have a cleaner, more modern appearance."

Spot colour A single colour ink or varnish applied to printed material. Primarily used when process colours are not appropriate. The effective use of spot colour can add heightened interest to printed materials without incurring the cost of process colours.

Stock Photos are photos which are available for rental or purchase for commercial use. They can be obtained from an image bank (a company which makes its business renting use of stock photos) or on disks which can be purchased. Most image banks show their material on the Web. Different price scales apply to images according to their source, their quality, their resolution, and how specialized their subject matter is. Image banks monitor where an image has been used and charge accordingly, and make limited usage available to others who are considering using the image to prevent overuse in a given area. When they are used well, stock photos are an invaluable way to add life to a piece.

Sans Serif Font is a type font without short finishing strokes projecting from the ends of its characters. In contrast to serif fonts, sans serif fonts are commonly used for headlines and display use.
From The Art of Desktop Publishing:
"Type styles that do not have serifs (extra strokes on the end of the lines making up the letters). These are more modern looking, but many people find them hard to read in large blocks of text."

Script A kind of type face that mimics handwriting.

Server is the computer that provides service for the Web site, containing all the files and enabling them to be accessed via the Web.

Signature in printing and binding, the name given to a printed sheet after it has been folded. The standard number of pages which a particular size sheet of paper accommodates. For instance, one sheet of paper may accommodate a 16 page signature.

Spread When a publication is printed with several interacting spot colours, gaps or colour shifts may appear between objects. A spread closes the gap by overlapping a light foreground object to a dark background.

Stock paper to be printed.

Style Sheet Instructions for the layout of a document, such as the type faces to be used, point size of headers, placement of footers, etc., in order to maintain consistency throughout the document.

TIFF, or Tagged Image File Format is a picture file format often used for scanned images. It allows for an image's use in a number of software applications.
From Hemlock's Digital Mechanical Preparation:
"A pixel-based graphics file format used for scans of line-art."

Tint A lightened spot or process colour created by printing smaller halftone dots of the base colour. This is also referred to as screening the colour.

Trim Size Size of the printed product after the last trim is made

Thermography A finishing technique applied after printing that raises the ink and gives the effect of engraved printing.

Transparencies refers to photos in the form of slides or larger, 2" x 3" and 4" x 5".

Trapping The deliberate overlap of adjacent colours to minimize the effects of misregistration of printed materials.

Two Colour two-colour work refers to the use of two inks only in the design and printing of a piece. The two colours could be black and one PMS colour, or two PMS colours.
If you were to look at the world through a colour filter, certain details would stand out because light and dark values would be emphasized. Because we are accustomed to seeing life in full colour (simulated by four colour printing), a two-colour printed piece can truly surprise the eye. And not only can a two-colour technique be very effective, it is also more economical.
Used properly, two-colour technique can create a beautiful and understated effect, often times looking richer than four-colour work. We have developed advanced expertise in two-colour work. We can produce designs of with great depth, richness and interest through the advanced use of photographic duotones. With our skilled choice of ink colours and paper stocks, we can create the illusion of more than just two colours. The resulting piece often looks more elegant and sophisticated than it would using full colour printing.

Vector Images Images can be saved in two formats: vector and bitmap. In vector programs, images are saved in mathematical relationship to each other. (See Bitmapped Images.) A vector image can be changed in size to any size.
Vector oriented is also known as object oriented – an approach in drawing and layout programs that treats graphics as line and art segments rather than individual dots. We create vector images in CorelDraw! and Adobe Illustrator.

Watermark technically refers to the image a paper manufacturer impresses in paper, so that its brand is present without interfering with the surface of the paper.